Domestic-use grilling devices for the cooking of foods are well known and widely used at home, yard and camping grounds. A description of the prior art of a fast charcoal lighting device, and of two prior art cooking devices incorporating means for their fast lighting, is presented in this portion.
A known fast and easy charcoal-lighting device, is formed of a vertically positioned cylindrical tube having a bottom surface, or of a can having a closed bottom and an open top, the tube or can being divided by a partition parallel to the bottom surface into a smaller lower portion including a base and forming a lighting portion, made to accept lighting material such as lighter-fuel soaked paper, and into a larger upper firebox, made to contain the fuel to be lighted such as charcoal. The tube can be of a circular, square or of any other cross section. The partition is made of a mesh or of a disk incorporating a plurality of separated perforations, permitting a fluid-dynamic communication between said two portions but preventing most of the fuel from falling from the fuel portion into the lighting portion. Also, perforations are provided in the wall of said lighting portion to permit the drawing of air into the lighting portion, therefore facilitating the burning of the lighting material. The tube is placed on its base and the lighting material is lit. Upon lighting of the lighting material the tube serves as a flue, while the partition permits the upward flow of the hot gases and of the flames generated by the lighting material along the fuel, thus lighting the fuel. The lighted fuel is then poured into the firebox of a grill and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,137 to Moline, John H. et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,335 to Malafouris, Dennie O., present units incorporating a cooking unit including a cooking portion and a lighting portion, the cooking portion including a rectangular tray forming a firebox, the firebox is made to contain fuel such as charcoal, and the lighting portion made to contain and burn a lighting material. The firebox and the lighting portion shown in '137 and in '335 form a rectangular parallelepiped. A perforated partition separates the firebox from the lighting portion to permit fluid-dynamic communication between the lighting and the cooking portions while preventing charcoal size fuel from passing therethrough. Both patents claim cooking devices that are lighted while the firebox is projecting upward, the lighting portion disposed underneath said firebox and projecting downward, and cook while both the firebox and the lighting portion are disposed horizontally. A plurality of separated perforations in the rectangular firebox wall facing the partition, said wall being the top surface during lighting, ensure that an upward draft flows during the lighting from the lighting portion along the fuel to light it and then via the perforations to be expelled from the device. Thus, the cooking unit comprises of a lighting portion and a fuel portion, and functions much like a lighting device while vertically disposed. In both patents a base or supporting unit is provided to position the devices in either the lighting, vertical position or in the cooking, horizontal position. In both patents the food to be cooked is placed upon a grill made of relatively widely spaced thin rods. Patent '137 provides a damper, formed as a solid cover to cover the firebox of '137, in order to smother the fire at the end of the cooking and in order to create a flue like firebox and prevent spilling of the fuel from the firebox while vertically disposed. '335 provides for two lighting and cooking units which are pivotally attached to a support to be vertically disposed, attached and in registration during fuel lighting or smothering, and to be horizontally disposed in an open, extended position during cooking.
Most of Both '137 and '335 describe relatively complicated structures, made of a fairly large number of often complicated parts, requiring special tools for their manufacturing, although '137 teaches also, among others, a simpler device. Therefore, while both of the aforementioned cookers seem to cook adequately by current standards, simpler devices for better cooking and more economical to build are called for.